Nickelodeon star finds a new family

Actor Jerry Trainor is perfectly cast in his new sitcom "Wendell & Vinnie." How perfectly? Creator Jay Kogen had the costar of "iCarly" in mind for the part of Vinnie as he wrote the original script.

"When I read the script Jay had put my name in it: 'Think Jerry Trainor,'" he says of the Nick at Nite series that premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday. "He had had been to an 'iCarly' run-through and I guess he liked what I was doing. When Nickelodeon came to him to do a script he said, 'I want to do an 'Odd Couple' and I want to do it with Jerry.'"

And here's the ironic twist: Nickelodeon didn't call Trainor or send him the script at first, he says.

"I think at the time they thought I was not interested in working with them again, which was not the case," Trainor says.

The cable network can be forgiven for thinking that: Trainor had worked on all six seasons of "iCarly," playing Spencer, Carly's older brother. Before that he'd appeared regularly on Nickelodeon's "Josh & Drake" as Crazy Steve.

"I was looking everywhere," he says of the wide net he cast for new acting gigs as "iCarly" wrapped up in mid-2012. "I started fielding scripts from sort of the regular pilot pool. And there was a lot of funny stuff out there. But there's that double-edge sword: 'Yeah, I think this is funny but I'm not right for it."

"Wendell & Vinnie" features Trainor as Vinnie and Buddy Handleson as Wendell, who comes to live with his uncle Vinnie after his parents die in a car crash. Wendell is a serious grown-up; Vinnie is a playful, childlike man. The rest of the cast includes regulars Nicole Sullivan as Wilma, Vinnie's sister and Wendell's aunt, and Haley Strode as neighbor Taryn.

"I got the script and I was floored," Trainor says. "I loved it and felt I was right for it, and I called my manager immediately and said I want to do this show."

One of the things that appealed to him was that "Wendell & Vinnie" is aimed at a broader family audience, not the more teen-and-tween-specific audience that "iCarly" so successfully won over.

"I didn't know Nickelodeon had this plan to start doing sort of more mature grownup sitcoms," Trainor says, referring not just to "Wendell & Vinnie" but also the Scott Biao series "See Dad Run." "I definitely knew that as an actor that was what I wanted to do, step into something more mature."

Kogen, the show creator, comes from a background that includes work as a producer on shows such as "The Simpsons," "Frasier," "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Happily Divorced," experience that Trainor says he's transferring to "Wendell & Vinnie" now.

"I heard Jay talking to someone the other day, explaining that he worked on 'The Simpsons' and he worked on 'Frasier' and that we, the writers, write this show the exact same way," Trainor says. "We know there's a youth element here, but we don't write to that, we're writing to grownups, too.

"I was a child of the '80s. I grew up with 'Family Ties' and 'The Cosby Show' and my whole family would sit around and watch those together. I think this show kind of recaptures that a bit."

Trainor shot the pilot for "Wendell & Vinnie" the week after "iCarly" wrapped, which made for a strange leap from one TV family – that included Miranda Cosgrove as Carly and Orange County natives Jennette McCurdy and Noah Munck as Sam and Gibby, respectively – to a new one.

"I could not be happier now," he says. "To transition from one really great family to another, I feel so lucky.

"We're just having a blast and I really hope it will show on camera. I think people will like it."